You Save Me
by jackxnina15
Summary: A series of short, unrelated one-shots about Jack and Chloe throughout the seasons. Not necessarily as a couple, but you can read them that way if you want. I tried to stay true to the characters and their undefined friendship/partnership/relationship.
1. Intro

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in any of these chapters, or any random song lyrics that might appear.**

**Author's Note**

**I've always wished Jack and Chloe would get together, but watching season 6 right now I think I'm changing my mind on that. They have such a strange but solid relationship right now, too off-beat to be put in the category of a "couple", but different than just friends. It's like they trust each other so completely they're almost joined - they work flawlessly together, but that's only the surface level of the loyalty between them. So I decided to write a series of short unrelated one-shots about Jack-Chloe moments. You can read these however you want - if you like them as a couple, most could be interpreted that way. I'm trying not to define their relationship or put them in a box. My inspiration for most of these was the Kenny Chesney song You Save Me. Here are the lyrics:**

Every now and then  
I get a little lost  
The strings all get tangled  
The wires all get crossed  
Every now and then  
I'm right upon the edge  
Danglin' my toes out over the ledge  
I just thank God you're here

Cause when I'm a bullet shot out of a gun  
When I'm a firecracker coming undone  
When I'm a fugitive ready to run  
All wild-eyed and crazy  
No matter where my reckless soul takes me  
Baby you save me

It's hard lovin' a man  
That's got a gypsy soul  
I don't know how you do it  
I'm not sure how you know  
The perfect thing to say  
To save me from myself  
You're the angel that believes in me  
Like nobody else  
And I thank God you do

Well I know I don't tell you nearly enough  
I couldn't live one day without your love

When I'm a ship tossed around on the waves  
Up on a high wire that's ready to break  
When I've had just about all I can take  
Baby, you,  
Baby you save me

**I'll post these as I write them, so there are more coming. They won't go in any real order. Please read and review!**


	2. Loyalty

**A/N: I've always wondered what was going through her head in this scene.**

Suddenly it clicked; she recognized the small empty vial. _No...not this._Her head spun even as she knew that on some level, she'd suspected for months. He'd always been unpredictable, but since returning from Mexico he was especially volatile. She didn't give it much thought - her boss's mood swings weren't really any of her business - but thinking about it, she realized it had gotten worse as time went on. The last couple weeks everyone nearly tiptoed around him, trying to avoid anything that could set him off. And that morning, when he blew up at her for the tiniest reason...she couldn't deny the evidence.

Didn't the higher-ups at Division see this coming? They'd known he had to start taking heroin to go undercover with the Salazars. How could they expect him to come back from months of steady use and drop it like nothing ever happened? Chloe struggled to ignore the sudden suspicion that he'd _tried_ to hide this; assured them he was fine. After all, he'd been through hell like few would ever experience. If anyone was likely to need an escape, it would be him...and in having this drug forced upon him he may have found it. Maybe he'd started using for the mission, then when it came time to quit, realized he needed this temporary numbness.

She shuddered thinking of him alone at his house, shaking hands reaching for the needle, promising himself it would be the last time. _Oh, Jack..._She understood why he didn't want to ask for help - the bureaucrats would doubtlessly put him on "leave" while he went through the methadone treatments, and that was the last thing Jack Bauer needed. He'd given up everything for his job, so what would he have if that was taken away?

Chloe snapped out of her thoughts and realized she was still standing in Jack's office with an empty vial of heroin in her hand. Her first instinct was to go straight to Michelle - it was important for the acting head of CTU to know that one of her agents was probably high. But Chloe paused as she turned toward the door. Jack would find out she'd turned him in, and she couldn't stand the thought of him being angry. The two had a strange relationship - for her first months at CTU, they were constantly at each other's throats. She wasn't good at taking orders, and he didn't have much patience for her personality issues. There was one thing, though, that in her eyes made him different from everyone else: Even when he was snapping at her or giving orders, he still talked to her like a _person_. She was so used to being looked at as an emotionless extension of her computer, a notion she didn't do much to prove wrong. She'd learned long ago the easiest way to deal with it was to push the hurt back like it didn't matter to her; like she didn't care what anyone thought. Somehow, though, she got the feeling Jack saw through that. His intense blue eyes always seemed to linger on her a moment too long, and once after he'd snapped at her and she turned back to her computer, she felt his hand on her shoulder as he _apologized_. She shrugged it off, but his attention meant more to her than he knew. If she took this evidence of his addiction to Michelle, it would be like betraying him.

If she didn't turn him in, would he keep destroying himself with this? If she tried to confront him about it herself, he'd just blow her off and keep shooting up. In that second, Chloe knew what she had to do - the right thing for him, not for herself. She had to tell Michelle, to save him, even if it meant giving up this relationship that meant so much to her. She turned and reached for the door.


	3. Here's To The Night

**A/N: This was kind of hard to write without making it romantic or out-of-character, so I decided to make it a third-person observer point of view, like it would be in the show. It's not really like most of the pieces I have planned for this, but I thought it worked for the setting. The lyrics at the end are from the song Here's to the Night by Eve 6.**

A key card clicked in the door, then it swung open revealing him standing automatically off to the side as he made sure there was nothing and no one unexpected in the room. As he quickly stepped in and shut to door behind him, she looked up from the laptop in front of her on the bed. "Jack." He looked tired, deep tired, like he hadn't slept well since the last time they'd met in a seedy motel like this.

"Chloe. How have you been?"

"Better than you, apparently." She grimaced as soon as the words were out of her mouth. "Sorry, I didn't mean that, I just meant..."

A brief smile crossed his face. "It's OK, Chloe. I know I look like hell." She struggled awkwardly with her words for a moment before he spoke again. "Have you talked to Kim?"

"Yeah..."

Jack took her non-answer to mean there was bad news. "And?"

"Jack...Chase left her two weeks ago. She's pretty torn up about it."

He slammed his hand into the wall. "Son of a bitch! If I could get my hands on that kid right now...What happened?"

"I don't know, exactly. He said it was best for both of them, and it was almost mutual at the time. She didn't think he was happy being out of field work - and she was right."

"And he chose work over her? This is exactly why I was opposed to them dating in the first place! I knew he'd never be able to stay away for long. Kim doesn't need another field addict in her life..."

Again, Chloe was awkwardly silent, not knowing what to say. "I think she'll be OK. She's got a couple good friends that have hardly left her alone at all the last couple weeks. I think...they've even taken her to see a psychiatrist." She winced expectantly, like she was afraid his reaction wouldn't be good.

"A _what_? My daughter doesn't need some shrink screwing around in her head!"

"It might be good for her, Jack. Just to have somebody to talk to about everything that's happened since she was 17..." His expression went blank at her words, and she changed the subject abruptly. "Tony and Michelle are doing well. They're just getting started on their new security company and already have some big-name clients."

It took him a second to catch up with the subject shift. "Just out of curiosity, Chloe, did you find this out by asking them or hacking into their private files?"

She looked indignant. "I _talked_ to Michelle last week. She said they're enjoying the normalcy...and they miss you, Jack."

"Tell them I miss them too."

There was a slightly awkward silence, so she stammered, "I have the extra ID papers you need. Frank Flynn." She reached for her computer bag. "And I put you in the DMV registry and even the birth records in the state of Texas. You were born in a Plano hospital to Don and Marie Flynn in 1961."

"Thanks a lot, Chloe." He paused, and the tension in the room grew thick. Suddenly he reached over and drew her into a hug. "Are you staying here tonight?" She nodded against his chest. Hesitating, he asked, "Do you want me to stay with you?"

Her eyes were uncertain till they met his. Softly, she said, "Jack...Yes. Stay."

The pair didn't talk much, but when they drifted off to sleep, his arm was firmly wrapped around her.

_Here's to the night we felt alive  
Here's to the tears you knew you'd cry  
Here's to goodbye,  
Tomorrow's gonna come too soon_


	4. Only Hope

**A/N: I've had a little writers' block lately so sorry it's been so long.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own 24, obviously.**

_David Palmer's deep voice. "You betrayed me and the country, Jack. How could you let them kill me?"_

_"She was my life, Jack. She was my everything and because of you she was taken away." Tony sounded like a broken man._

_Nina's cold, humorless laugh. "I can't believe you didn't see it, Jack. Do you think Teri realized, as the blood was draining out of her body, that her husband's weakness was her killer?"_

_"You are a monster, Jack! A murderer!"_

Audrey's accusing scream mixed with his own as he jerked awake. Jack shivered convulsively, the cold concrete pressed against every inch of his bare sweating skin. His mind took time to adjust to the silence in the cell, so different than the voices that plagued his thoughts. Slowly he came to realize his head ached from being slammed against the unforgiving floor, and the restraints had rubbed scabs over previous scabs on his wrists and ankles. He'd lost track of how many nights in a row he had this same dream - he couldn't really even be sure they were nights. Years of training taught him tricks to stay sane in extreme situations, and one of the main ways was keeping track of time and days, but after a year in the Chinese prison it became too much for him. There was only one thing he could concentrate on - his only hope.

It wasn't in a romantic way that he imagined her. No, it was more like a man lost at sea dreams of a search helicopter, like a man dying in the desert longs for an oasis. He knew no matter how much time passed, she'd never stop looking for him. Over and over during their years of working together, she'd shown a loyalty that ran deeper than anything he thought he deserved. Time after time he asked what he knew was far too much from her, and she chose to help him at incredible risk to her job, freedom, even her life. She'd never lied to him, and he knew if she disagreed with him she'd say it to his face. No fluff or beating around the bush, and this the explanation behind their complete trust. Her straightforward, black-and-white way of thinking was a breath of fresh air to him, and he valued her opinions and input far more than she knew.

The day she'd called him for help and he came out of hiding, he didn't even think of it as a choice. She was in danger, because of him, and he would do anything to rescue her. The hour between her call and when he saw her seemed like the longest of his life. She'd sounded so scared, so vulnerable on the phone, and he couldn't bear to think of her alone and helpless.

A smirk crossed Jack's face as he imagined her reaction to that thought. The last thing she would ever be was _helpless_, a weak female waiting around for the big strong men to save her. When she had an opinion, which was almost all the time, she stuck with it relentlessly. It wasn't that she had no respect for authority, just that when she decided something was important, she would stand for what she believed in through absolutely anything. If that meant shattering countless CTU protocols or even the law, so be it. And Jack knew that because of their off-beat partnership, she would take up his cause with anyone who would listen. Even if the rest of the American government left him for dead, she would do whatever it took to find him.

As the cell door banged open and Jack was dragged to his feet, this was the thought he hung on to. If he slipped into believing there was no way out, he'd go crazy. But as long as he believe he had a chance, that his only hope was still out there somewhere, he could withstand anything.


End file.
